... the meetings and convention sector is as well. Certainly, the downward spiral of the economy of the past year is a major factor in attendance declines, but the business bashing that has been so much in vogue in Washington, D.C. is also taking its toll.
Consider this from the U.S. Travel Association: “Recently, some companies that received emergency government funding have been vilified for maintaining their performance incentive programs and following through on planned meetings and events. Due to these attacks, companies that have – and many more that have not – received emergency government support have chosen to cancel thousands of meetings and events across the country. USA Today reports that the meetings, events, and incentive travel planners report that business is down by about 35 percent.â€
Back in March, attendance at the Aviation Industry Expo in Las Vegas was actually fairly static, and considering what is happening to the convention business in Vegas that is surprising in retrospect. According to a recent report by Tradeshow Week, “Convention attendance in the month of April was off 23 percent, down to 414,764 attendees this year, compared with 538,316 in the same period last year, according to the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority Executive Summary. The number of conventions also dipped to 1,843 this April, compared with 2,623 in the same period last year, a 29.7 percent decrease.â€
There seems to have been a precipitous decline in meeting numbers since. This month in Philadelphia, the annual convention of the American Association of Airport Executives saw attendance drop significantly. Unofficial estimates put the drop in numbers at some 20 percent. Research indicates that that number is pretty much in line with what’s happening with meetings nationwide; however, some reports suggest that a 20 percent decline is a positive in 2009.
Probably the best barometer for aviation conventions is the annual convention of the National Business Aviation Association, which had a fairly static attendance total in 2008 – but that was at the beginning of the global economic slide and before bizjet bashing became all the D.C. rage. This year’s show should tell us a lot; however, a request to NBAA for an update on this year’s numbers drew no reply.
Also according to the U.S. Travel Association, the Department of Labor reports that business travel accounts for $240 billion in spending and $39 billion in tax revenue at the federal, state, and local levels. Think about it -- $39 billion in tax revenues. Even in Washington, where the new policy is to print dollars faster than the government can spend them, that’s still a chunk of change.
President Obama and the political posturers in Congress should consider those numbers the next time they decide to pick on an industry. That, of course, is assuming that they actually care about anything other than being reelected.
Thanks for reading. jfi